Confirmation of Payee

Confirmation of Payee is a name checking service that checks the name of the account holder you intend to pay, along with their account details when making a new payment and adding a new payee

The Confirmation of Payee check has been introduced to help reduce fraud and to give you more confidence that the payment you are making is sent to the correct person.

Our priority is to keep your money safe and secure. That is why we are we introducing Confirmation of Payee which is a name checking service to help protect and help reduce fraud, to give you more confidence when making payments.

Confirmation of Payee will also help avoid simple mistakes like mis-typing account details when you set up a new payee.

When you set up a new payee the account holder’s name will be checked against the account details held with their bank. We will then tell you if the details you’ve entered match, giving you more confidence you’re paying the right person or business.

By checking that you have the correct details for the person or business you’re paying, Confirmation of Payee helps to protect against certain types of fraud. It also helps to prevent payments from going to the wrong account, keeping your money and accounts safe.

You will need the following details of the payee:

• Full first name – for example, ‘Thomas’ not ‘Tom’ or ‘Tommy’
• Last name
• Sort code
• Account number (and account reference if needed)
• Account type 

For joint accounts, you only need to use the full name of one of the account holders.

For payments into a non-personal account, use the full business or organisation name and choose the account type as business.

No. The check is made in real-time before the payment is formally requested, so you’ll see the response immediately.

No, you must decide whether to proceed with the payment once you’ve read the Confirmation of Payee response. 

If you receive a close match or no match response and decide to continue without checking that the payee details are correct and that the payment request is genuine, we may not be able to recover the money you send if it goes to an unintended payee.

Yes. This information is important and helps the recipient's payment provider to decide which Confirmation of Payee check response to return.

To help keep your money safe, be alert when:

• Someone you don’t know asks you to make a payment
• The name of the person you’re paying doesn’t match the account name
• Someone asks you to ignore the check when the account name doesn’t match
• You feel pressured to make a payment.
• A person or business’s account details change unexpectedly. 

And remember:

• Do not give out your personal or financial details.
• Never open a link in an unexpected or suspicious email or text 
• A genuine bank or business will never ask you for your PIN, banking password, or to move money.

When you open a new account with Al Rayan Bank, it might take a few working days for the Confirmation of Payee service to take effect.

If you or someone else (like a friend or family member) want to transfer money from an external account, the Confirmation of Payee checking service might not identify your new Al Rayan Bank account right away on the opening day. If the other bank can't confirm the details, it might put a delay on the transfer.

To fund your account from an external bank or building society, depending on when you open your account, please wait for at least 72 hours. This allows a Confirmation of Payee check by your bank or building society:

• Account opened Monday - Thursday: Fund the next working day.
• Account opened Friday - Sunday: Fund on Tuesday.

Confirmation of Payee lets you check the name of the person or business you’re paying when:

• Setting up a new payee
• Updating an existing payee.

You will see one of these results on screen:

• Account name is a match.
• Account name is a close match.
• Account name is not a match.
• Unable to check the account. 

We may explain a bit more about the result, depending on the reason you’re seeing it. For example, if you’ve chosen to pay a personal account when the payee is a business, we’ll let you know.

Account name is a match.

The account name and account details match the payee’s details.

Although the name matches, you should make sure you’re still happy that you know who you’re paying and that they’re trustworthy.

Account name is a close match.

The account name is close to the payee’s name. You’ll be shown the name on the account you’re paying to help you decide whether it’s the right person. You should double-check the details and request another Confirmation of Payee check before sending any payment.

Account name is not a match.

The account name does not match the payee’s name or account details. Again, you should double-check the details and request another Confirmation of Payee check, otherwise your money could be sent to the wrong account.

When it’s not possible to make a match, we’ll let you know that the payment could be sent to the wrong account. And if you choose to go ahead anyway, we may not be able to get your money back.

Unable to check account.

Sometimes we won’t be able to check the name on the account you’re sending money to. That does not mean that anything’s wrong. It could just be that the payee’s bank or building society isn’t using Confirmation of Payee yet, or the payee has opted-out of CoP.

You can continue with the payment – but always double-check the account name and details are correct.

We value all our customers and always strive to provide a quality service. However, if you feel that we have not met your expected level of service, we want to hear from you.

Complaints procedure

You can’t opt out of Confirmation of Payee when you’re making a payment to someone else. You can, however, request to opt out of your details being checked when other people try to pay you.

IMPORTANT: Confirmation of Payee is being introduced to improve payments between UK banks and reduce instances of fraud as well as payments going to the wrong account. For this to be effective, it’s vitally important that everyone can receive a Confirmation of Payee response when they make a payment. If you opt out of Confirmation of Payee, when a person or business tries to pay you, then they will get a message that your details can’t be checked.

If you still want to opt out of the Confirmation of Payee service, please complete the online form and we’ll consider your request.